A monumental bronze Royal Tent Support Persia or Central Asia, late 12th Century

of cylindrical form, open at either end, cast in a single piece with four concentric rings to base, rim and central section, engraved to upper and lower sections with bold repeating inscriptions in thuluth alternating with roundels, the central section with elegant frieze of running lions alternating with roundels on a scrolling ground 54cm. x 38cm. diam.; weight 82kg.

Footnotes

Provenance: Found near Balasagun, Kyrgystan. Private UK Collection since 1950.

This extraordinary monumental bronze is testimony to the skill of medieval Islamic metalwork and is an important addition to the group of known engraved Khorasan bronzes. The function of this piece has been identified by Anatoly Ivanov of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and can be seen in miniature paintings of the Timurid, Safavid and Ottoman periods. Bridging two adjoining wooden poles to support imperial tents made of heavy materials, they can be seen in numerous paintings of outdoor royal scenes in illustrated manuscripts of the Shahnameh and Sa'di's Bustan amongst others. Bronze supports are clearly shown for example in a scene from the Khamsa of Nizami produced for the great Safavid ruler Shah Tahmasp depicting the Nomad Encampment of Layla's Tribe (illustrated in Eleanor Sims, Peerless Images, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, no. 172, p. 257).

The extraordinarily elegant engraved frieze of running felines alternating with roundels can be related to fine examples of Iranian metalwork of the 12th Century, specifically to a Khorasan bucket of cast brass in the British Museum (OA 1953.2-17.I) and a Nishapur ewer of cast brass in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (38.40.240).

Formerly thought to be monumental candle-stands, ten of these supports are currently shared between the State Hermitage Museum St.Petersburg, the State Museum of Oriental Arts Moscow, the Historical Museum in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan and the Institute of Archaeology of the Kazakh Republic. Their Central Asian origin points to the possibility they were used by a powerful nomadic tribe. During the 12th Century, Balasagun was the former capital city of the Karakhanids, a powerful semi-nomadic group whose sophisticated artistic production was influenced by its neighbours the Seljuks and Ghaznavids.

For further reading see (in Russian) A.Ivanov, 'On the so-called Nestorian Candlestands', Byzantium in the Context of World Culture to Commemorate the Centenary of Alisa Vladimirovna Bank 1906-1984 , State Hermitage Publishing, St. Petersburg, 2008 pp. 381-385, examples illustrated on p. 382 (I.R.2347 and I.R.2348).

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